A few weeks ago saw myself and a fellow Roly head to the south coast at silly o clock on a Sunday morning to catch a ferry to the Isle of Wight for the annual Isle of Wight Randonnee.

And boy we weren’t alone!!

On arriving at the ferry terminal to purchase our tickets we were greeted with a sea of lycra clad men and women in various shades of garish outfits also waiting to board and undertake this challenge. Once on the ferry you couldn’t move for cyclists and as for trying to get a much needed coffee, well you were waiting longer than Team Sky have been waiting for a monument win (though as with Team Sky we did get one eventually)!!

The Isle of Wight Randonnee is not a sportive, there is no charge to enter, and is run purely by volunteers who ask simply for charitable donations in return. These volunteers are fantastic! On board the ferry a group were ready with stacks of Brevet cards for us to collect, as well as good old fashioned paper maps for those who didn’t have the latest new fangled cycle computers (I was excited as this would see the first test of my new toy, a Garmin Edge 520!).

Arriving in East Cowes I did feel for the car drivers who were perhaps unaware of the event and had to wait whilst 100’s of cyclists click-clacked their way down the ramp. But off the ferry and on our bikes we were straight away greeted with what would be a regular occurrence. Hills.

Instantly the road rose upwards and continued to do so for well over a kilometre, from a cold start this got the legs nice and warm, and also acted as a prelude for what was to come!!

Now my colleague (the same colleague with the shocking saddle sores you will remember from previous adventures) it is fair to say, is considerably larger than me and so our one rule (as always when we ride) is you ride the hills at your own pace and then wait when the road levels out, and so it was that after the initial leg burner we re-grouped and I informed my esteemed colleague that the course was apparently ‘lumpy’, a description that would later be growled at me through gritted teeth from said colleague!

The route was constantly undulating in the early stages meaning building up any real rhythm was a challenge and the legs were certainly well and truly warmed up by the time we reached the 1^st check point in Wooton a little under 10km in. Thankfully after this stop off the sheer volume of riders started to thin out which was a welcome relief as we were finding that some riders had perhaps never ridden in large groups before and there were one or two near misses occurring.

One thing was clear from early on though, my friend’s ‘Fat Lad At the Back’ (FLAB) jersey was getting significant interest (sadly much more than my new One Pro Cycling jersey). People were cheering him on, giving him supporting words (‘You can never be at the back in a Randonnee’) and were genuinely asking to take pictures, for which he was happy to oblige, even cracking a smile or two.

On we rode through some absolutely gorgeous scenery, down lovely nice country lanes, and through quaint villages often catching occasional views of the cliffs and ocean. From Wooton to Bembridge the route was fairly up and down but a lot of fun. A shout of ‘I am sure this isn’t a tough hill’ proved to be incorrect as the gradient rose steeply and the air was turned blue behind me necessitating quickly putting distance between my colleague and I for health and safety reasons!

Having attempted ‘The One’ recently (more on that another day) I was feeling quite strong. My ride partner on the other hand was already feeling the energy sapping ascents in his legs. He did (for some unknown reason) channel his inner Chris Froome at one point though, exploding up an incline only to be waylaid when he rounded a bend to see it continued on for a fair distance.

Through Seaview (yep you guessed it you could see the sea) we made our way on to checkpoint two at Bembridge. where we took on a gel, had a bit of a chat and then got back in the saddle for what proved to be the most challenging part of the route so far.

From quiet country lanes and the odd main road we would shortly turn off on to what equated to little more than narrow tracks which would again bunch the groups up. Sadly I must say that this is perhaps the first time in a large group ride/sportive where I haven’t felt a huge level of camaraderie and ‘we’re in this together’ spirit from other riders (excluding the aforementioned FLAB love). And so it was that upon hitting the track you had the usual ‘I’m not waiting for anyone’ lot who were trying to squeeze in to non-existent gaps only to then come to a near standstill because of the same reason we were all slowing.

A Tesco delivery van was struggling with the gradients, the narrowness and likely a few cyclists in front!! This meant the pace dropped significantly and on some of the inclines that slow pace was killer!!

Tesco van out of the way though and on we rolled up anther short but tough incline. Pulling over and waiting for my colleague I exchanged a bit of chit chat with a poor soul whose gear cables had snapped and who was trying to come up with a quick fix. I think my fellow Roly who had now caught back up with me would gladly have given up his cable if I hadn’t got going again so quickly.

We rolled onwards and this time downward with a couple of short, sharp and twisty descents leading us to checkpoint 3 at Alverstone and a welcome stop to collect our next stamp.

It was at this point that we had a decision to make though as my partner in crime was beginning to suffer from the rolling landscape. In the end we chose to cut through the island and do the 55km route as there was no point in continuing if he wasn’t enjoying it.

This second shorter route proved very interesting and perhaps had we known that we would in effect be riding farm tracks, canal paths and through industrial estates I may have tried to be more persuasive in pushing for the longer route.

Not much more of note really occurred after this apart from an incident that nearly left me red faced when I got my gearing all wrong trying to go through a gated section uphill. A very close call and a shipping of the chain later it was as though nothing had happened.

We hit the ferry with the super fast riders who had already smashed the full course, leaving them wondering how these two tubbys were finishing at the same time. A cider later and a vow to return not only next year but also later in the summer, we headed for home disappointed but safe in the knowledge that as this ride was about two friends having fun and nothing more, we made the right choice.